Mercury News: Devastating Housing Report Requires California Action

Mercury News: Devastating Housing Report Requires California Action
January 8, 2017 zach

Onizuka Crossing, a new affordable housing complex for 58 families and former homeless community members, had its grand opening on Oct. 5.  The housing, named after the late astronaut Lt. Col. Ellison Onizuka, was built on the site of the former Sunnyvale Amory and cold-weather shelter. (Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer)This is the year California has to face up to its affordable housing crisis and act. A new state report makes that clear.

In the Bay Area, where we’re used to 3 BR, 1 BA fixer-uppers selling for upward of $1 million — way upward in places like Palo Alto — there may be some comfort in the California Department of Housing and Community Development draft report on housing released Tuesday.

Comfort in the sense that misery loves company.

Based on the state analysis, California’s housing crisis is at its worst ever, and not just in places like Silicon Valley. Building too few homes to accommodate the growth in population is a widespread phenomenon.

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